Somewhat out of the blue, my sister called and asked if I would show her how to change the oil on her "new to her" car. Car is a 2011 Honda Pilot with about 90k miles on it. She said the check engine light had come on a little over a week ago and hadn't turned off on its own, and that her OLM had just reached 0%.
When she pulled in the garage her car was making a pretty loud rattling noise. We drained the pan and out came a whole quart of oil including what was in the filter! I asked her how far she had gone on that oil and she said about 7500 miles. Oil used was Castrol 5w20 Synthetic from a local garage shortly after it was purchased.
I checked the codes for the CEL and came up with codes for the cylinder deactivation on both banks. I am assuming those systems must use oil pressure to function. When I told her the codes, she said she did notice that the "ECO" light stopped coming on around the time the CEL showed up.
Filled it with 5 quarts of fresh Mobil1 0w20 HM and a M1 filter, cleared the codes, fired it up and it was still making quite a bit of noise. Started listening under the hood and noticed she was 1/2 pint low on power steering fluid. I topped off the power steering fluid and it purred smoothly and quietly. She said on her way home the ECO light was working again.
Should she be concerned about the longevity of this vehicle having run it so low on oil, or did she dodge a bullet since it seems to be running smooth a quiet now?
I told her to keep an eye on it and that we should change it again around 3k, likely with 5w30 supertech, but I'm wondering if she bought someone else's problem with it being an oil burner and if she might want to get rid of it sooner rather than later.
Thoughts?
When she pulled in the garage her car was making a pretty loud rattling noise. We drained the pan and out came a whole quart of oil including what was in the filter! I asked her how far she had gone on that oil and she said about 7500 miles. Oil used was Castrol 5w20 Synthetic from a local garage shortly after it was purchased.
I checked the codes for the CEL and came up with codes for the cylinder deactivation on both banks. I am assuming those systems must use oil pressure to function. When I told her the codes, she said she did notice that the "ECO" light stopped coming on around the time the CEL showed up.
Filled it with 5 quarts of fresh Mobil1 0w20 HM and a M1 filter, cleared the codes, fired it up and it was still making quite a bit of noise. Started listening under the hood and noticed she was 1/2 pint low on power steering fluid. I topped off the power steering fluid and it purred smoothly and quietly. She said on her way home the ECO light was working again.
Should she be concerned about the longevity of this vehicle having run it so low on oil, or did she dodge a bullet since it seems to be running smooth a quiet now?
I told her to keep an eye on it and that we should change it again around 3k, likely with 5w30 supertech, but I'm wondering if she bought someone else's problem with it being an oil burner and if she might want to get rid of it sooner rather than later.
Thoughts?